GitHub Copilot is Code Cloning 2.0

The coding community loves one thing overwhelmingly, but begrudgingly admits: a shortcut. The shortcuts show up as object, function and variable naming schemes and conventions. The shortcuts show up as time complexity optimization hacks. Or the shortcut shows up as a beta software product or platform release so that users can do the heavily lifting when it comes to software validation and verification procedures. If there’s a clear pattern, then the coding community sees an algorithmic opportunity to digitally scale, share and monetize it. I expect that there will be some people who will dispute my assessment. It’s an uncomfortable truth given how enamored our society is with perceived technological innovation and advancement. But I said what I said given my experiences as an educator, researcher and practitioner. In the classroom, learners want to know which software libraries or application programming interfaces (APIs) they can use to make the product they want — with diminishing care in understanding the code’s meaning or vetting its accuracy. When conducting research, there’s so much attention being focused on the work’s contributions and novelty. Aspects of the research’s building blocks that are unattached to the novelty portion are considered rudimentary. You’re essentially recreating known elements and there’s no need or incentive to scrutinize their impact on the new proposed research application. And as a practitioner, the timeline and, more importantly, the budget drives the need for quick turnaround time with respect to code design, creation and deployment. Code re-use is deemed necessary to meet the team’s expectations and align with the company’s key performance indicators. The shortcuts could be an asset when they’re applied in the right context. The appetite to determining appropriate situational context is growing far slower than selecting shortcuts out of convenience. <a href="https://medium.com/@brandeismarshall/github-copilot-is-code-cloning-2-0-93726e40afbe">Website</a>